ROYAL LOOT CHEAP LIKE BORSCHT
'Majestic' tiaras of Josephine Bonaparte sold in UK


The elaborate jewel-encrusted tiaras are thought to have belonged to the French empress Josephine Bonaparte 

AFP/Daniel LEAL

Tue, December 7, 2021

A pair of "highly rare" centuries-old headpieces encrusted with jewels and believed to have belonged to the French empress Josephine Bonaparte sold at auction in London Tuesday for nearly £600,000 ($795,000, 710,000 euros).

The two tiaras -- offered from a private British collection dating back at least 150 years -- are thought to have been given to Napoleon Bonaparte's wife by his sister Caroline early in the 19th century, according to Sotheby's.

Both headpieces, each part of a parure -- a set of matching jewellery designed to be worn together -- are set with gemstones engraved with classical heads, several of which are possibly ancient, the auction house said.

The more ornate of the duo -- comprising carnelian, enamel and gold -- fetched £450,600, while the other sold for £126,000, as part of a "Treasures" sale of various valuable and rare items.

"These majestic jewels mounted with cameos and intaglios certainly evoke the style of the grand Empress Josephine -- her rank as wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, her impeccable taste and her interest in the classical world," said Kristian Spofforth, of Sotheby's.

"The jewels offered here demonstrate the finest delicate work by the finest French workshops, and, today, there are hardly any comparable pieces in the world.

"When fashions changed, jewellery was broken up and re-modelled, making their survival a truly exceptional one."

Josephine Bonaparte was likely given just the engraved gems, which Sotheby's said were a possible combination of Roman examples dating back to as early as 100 BC as well as more contemporary Italian engravings.

The auctioneers believe the jewels were then mounted for her in the French capital in around 1808 in the neo-classical style, citing marks on the crowns pointing to Paris and its famed goldsmiths of the age.

They were believed to endow the wearer with their various depicted qualities such as heroism, faithfulness and love, all while blazing a trail in the fashion world of the day.

"By being the first to incorporate these cameos and intaglios into her dress, wearing them side by side with pearls and diamonds, she created an entire new fashion that swept Paris and the world, based on neo-classical forms," explained Spofforth.

No details were immediately released Tuesday on the identity of the buyers.

Sotheby's said the tiaras were possibly acquired from Josephine or her estate by British landowner, art collector and politician Edward Lascelles, and then passed on to his descendants.

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Nobel winner hits out at UK, France over Channel migrants

The Zanzibar-born British novelist, whose work has focused on the plight of migrants, received his Nobel prize for literature in London on Monday 

(AFP/ADRIAN DENNIS)More


Tue, December 7, 2021

British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, the winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, criticised on Tuesday the "inhumane" responses of the UK and French governments to the Channel migrant crisis.

"There is something quite inhumane I think in the responses of these two governments, particularly I think of the British government," he said in an online press conference the day after receiving his Nobel winner's medal.

"It's rather strange almost to see the language, the narrative that is constructed against or about these attempts to cross," he added.

This year has seen a record number of migrants seeking to cross the Channel from northern France to Britain, risking their lives on one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

Last month saw a tragedy in which at least 27 people drowned.

The issue has become a flashpoint for leaders in London and Paris, provoking a war of words amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment in both countries.

Around 26,000 people have crossed so far in 2021, leading to severe pressure on the UK government which had vowed to reduce migration after pushing through Britain's departure from the European Union.

London has previously mooted exploring ways to turn around migrants' boats in the Channel.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also proposed sending back all migrants landing in Britain, a move he claimed would save "thousands of lives by fundamentally breaking the business model of the criminal gangs".

Meanwhile, legislation currently working its way through the British parliament would increase the maximum sentence for migrants entering the UK unlawfully from six months to four years, while convicted people-smugglers could face a life sentence.

The draft law, which ministers have called the biggest overhaul of asylum rules in decades and is based on the idea that people should claim asylum in the "first safe country" they arrive in, has been heavily criticised by rights groups.

Gurnah, who won the prestigious Nobel award in October, has been acclaimed for his novels' focus on the plight of refugees, as well as the effects of colonialism.

The 72-year-old author fled to Britain from Zanzibar in late 1967, later acquiring British citizenship.

In his virtual press conference, Gurnah also said he had been left wondering whether the British government's failure to congratulate him for landing the prize could be down to the fact he is an African-born writer.

"It's possible that that could be the explanation, that they don't quite see this writer as somebody to whom they owe congratulations," he added.

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FASCIST REACTIONARIES

On the web and on the streets, Covid protests get nasty


Germany is struggling to deal with protests against coronavirus restrictions

 (AFP/Yann Schreiber)

Max BIEDERBECK
Tue, December 7, 2021,

A call is out on Telegram for people opposing Covid restrictions to share private addresses of German "local MPs, politicians and other personalities" who they believe are "seeking to destroy" them through pandemic curbs.

Those on the list should no longer be allowed to "live a carefree life," wrote the group called "Coronavirus-Information" in the message that was put online late November.

Since then it has been viewed by 25,000 people.

On Friday evening, a group of corona-sceptics armed with flaming torches massed outside the house of Petra Koepping, the health minister of Saxony state.

The scenes in the stronghold of Germany's far-right, accompanied by thumping drum beats, were reminiscent of Nazi-era marches, drawing condemnation from mainstream politicians.

Olaf Scholz, who is due to take office on Wednesday as Germany's new chancellor, urged society "not to be infected" by such "aggressive" behaviour.

"When such flaming torch processions take place in front of the house of a health minister, that is meant as a threat -- that is not just an expression of opinion, and we as democrats strongly reject that," he said.

Not only in Germany, but also in the Netherlands and Austria, security services have warned of growing radicalisation among coronavirus-sceptics.

And the Telegram list is just one in a multitude of such examples flourishing on social networks in Germany, attracting opponents of coronavirus curbs from mask-wearing to vaccinations.

- 'Dilemma' -

The incoming German government's recent call for compulsory vaccinations has fired up another wave of rage.

Thomas Strobl, who heads the conference of regional interior ministers, warned that mandatory jabs will only "further harden the attitudes of opponents".

Strobl also accused Internet regulators of falling short in clamping down on such threatening calls online.

But Simone Rafael of the anti-racism Amadeu Antonio foundation said that policing the online sphere was easier said than done.

"German politicians are confronted with a dilemma when it comes to networks like Telegram," said the expert on online radicalisation.

The only solution would be to completely shut it down. But in democratic Germany, no one wants that."

As a result, conspiracy theories and violence are spreading. Some users feel so untouchable that they use their real names to threaten people online.

- 'Dead serious' -

While a wave of dissent against corona curbs had been there since the beginning of the pandemic, the hardening of the discourse is palpable today.

"For the followers of such narratives, this is not a joke but something that is dead serious," said Miro Dittrich, specialist in the far-right for the research centre CeMAS.

"They are now reaching a point where they can no longer find solutions to their fictional problems through normal means," he said. As a result, some may turn even to violence.

"We see more and more users on Telegram spreading private addresses in order to attack these people," he said.

Those targeted have voiced fears of growing threats.

"Doctors involved in the fight against the pandemic are reporting increasing hostility and threats," said Susanne Johna, who heads the Marburger Bund, a federation of the sector, in an interview with the Funke newspaper group.

After all, some have shown they are prepared to take a step beyond threats.

A young cashier working at a petrol station who asked a client to put on his mask, as required by the law, was shot dead by the man in September, becoming the first fatal casualty of the increasingly violent corona-sceptic movement.

max/ylf/hmn/dlc/tgb

IT'S NOT INFRASTRUCTURE

Israel announces completion of underground Gaza border barrier

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel on Tuesday announced the completion of a sensor-equipped underground wall on its side of the Gaza border, a counter-measure developed after Hamas militants used tunnels to blindside its troops in a 2014 war.

© Reuters/AMMAR AWAD 

Israel reveals underground barrier along the Gaza Strip border

Israel went public with the project, which also includes an above-ground fence, a naval barrier, radar systems and command and control rooms, in 2016.

"The barrier, which is an innovative and technologically advanced project, deprives Hamas of one of the capabilities it tried to develop," Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said, according to a defence ministry statement.

"(It) places an 'iron wall', sensors and concrete between the terror organisation and the residents of Israel's south," he said of the project, which beefs up an existing border fence

.

The ministry said the barrier, which includes hundreds of cameras, radars and other sensors, spans 65 kilometres (40 miles) and that 140,000 tonnes of iron and steel were used in its construction, which took 3.5 years to complete.

It said the project's "smart fence" is more than 6 metres (20 feet) high and its maritime barrier includes means to detect infiltration by sea and a remote-controlled weapons system. The ministry did not disclose the depth of the underground wall.

Gaza also has a 14-kilometre-(8.7-mile)-long border with Egypt, which has also clamped down on crossings, citing security concerns. Since 2013, Egyptian forces have demolished smuggling tunnels while Hamas, on its side, has stepped up patrols.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since the Islamist group seized control the coastal Gaza Strip in 2007 from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In the latest conflict, last May, Hamas and other militant groups fired more than 4,300 rockets at Israel, which deployed Iron Dome interceptors against them and carried out extensive air strikes in Gaza.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Dan Williams, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Pandemic boosts super-rich share of global wealth

In this April 8, 2020, photo, small businesses are shuttered closed during the coronavirus epidemic in the Crown Heights neighbourhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Mark John

Reuters
Published Dec. 7, 2021 

LONDON -

The share of household wealth owned by billionaires has risen by a record amount during the pandemic, with millionaires also coming out of COVID-19 ahead, a study found on Tuesday.

The World Inequality Report produced by a network of social scientists estimated that billionaires this year collectively own 3.5% of global household wealth, up from slightly above 2% at the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

"The COVID crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population," lead author Lucas Chancel said, noting that rich economies used massive fiscal support to mitigate the sharp rises in poverty seen elsewhere.

RELATED LINKS
World Inequality Report 2022

The report drew on a variety of specialist research and public domain data, with a foreword written by U.S.-based economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two of the trio who won a 2019 Nobel for work on poverty.

"Since wealth is a major source of future economic gains, and increasingly, of power and influence, this presages further increases in inequality," they wrote of what they called an "extreme concentration of economic power in the hands of a very small minority of the super-rich."

The findings corroborate a range of existing studies, "rich lists" and other evidence pointing to a rise in health, social, gender and racial inequalities during the pandemic.

Forbes' annual world's billionaires list this year included a record-breaking 2,755 billionaires with a combined worth of US$13.1 trillion, up from US$8 trillion last year.

The new report showed that a wider group of 520,000 adults who make up the top 0.01% richest together saw their share of global wealth hit 11% this year, up from 10% the year before.

Belonging to the top 0.01% category meant having household wealth of at least 16.7 million euros (US$19 million), adjusted for purchasing power parity across currencies, it said.

Analysts say some super-rich have benefited from the shift online of much of the world's economy during lockdowns, while others simply gained from rising asset prices as financial markets bet on the speed and shape of the global recovery.

The study also found that while poverty increased sharply in countries with weaker welfare coverage, massive government support in the United States and Europe was able to mitigate at least some of that impact on lower earners there.

"This shows the importance of social states in the fight against poverty," Chancel said.

Separately, it welcomed this year's deal on a global minimum corporation tax rate of 15% as a possible milestone in efforts to halt a "race to the bottom" which since the mid-1980s has led to a halving of average company tax rates to around 24%.

However it said the agreement was flawed because the 15% floor was lower than what average-earners pay in high-income countries and because it offered carve-outs and opaque arbitration possibilities to many of the companies affected.

(Reporting by Mark John; Editing by Alison Williams)

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The share of household wealth owned by billionaires has risen by a record amount during the pandemic, with millionaires also coming out of Covid-19 ahead, a study found on Tuesday. The World Inequality Report produced by a network of social scientists estimated that billionaires this year collectively own 3.5% of global household wealth, up from slightly above 2% at the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

Chile Congress approves same-sex marriage bill

Celebrations erupted in the Chilean Senate after the passing of a bill to legalize same-sex marriage on December 7, 2021 (AFP/Dedvi MISSENE)

Tue, December 7, 2021

Chile's Congress on Tuesday approved a long-awaited bill to legalize same-sex marriage, joining just a handful of countries in majority Catholic Latin America with similar laws.

The measure, which will also enable married same-sex couples to adopt children, has the support of President Sebastian Pinera, who must sign it into law.

Cheers erupted in the chamber and people waved LGBTQ flags when the bill was approved after a process of some four years.

"I am tremendously moved. I am finding it difficult to keep my composure. It's been a long race," said Isabel Amor of the Fundacion Iguales rights group, who was in the chamber for the vote.

LGBTQ rights group Movilh said the move was "an historic and decisive step" for same-sex couples and parents "who, without exception, were being discriminated against."

The bill got the green light from the upper house of Congress, or the Senate, on Tuesday and was immediately given the final stamp of approval by the lower Chamber of Deputies, with 82 votes to 20.

There were two abstentions.

- 'I do' -

In Latin America, same-sex couples could until now get married only in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, as well as in 14 of Mexico's 32 states.

Chile legalized same-sex civil unions in 2015 and has been awaiting the passage of the marriage bill since then-president Michelle Bachelet sent it to Congress in 2017.

In a surprise move, her conservative successor Pinera announced in June he would seek the urgent passage of the bill -- supported by a majority of Chileans -- through Congress.

The project has been consistently opposed by the most conservative bloc of Chile's ruling right wing, but has nevertheless obtained a majority "yes" vote at every step of the process in an opposition-dominated Congress.

"It is something very significant. One really feels dignified as a human being, as a person," Ramon Lopez, who had been waiting for the law to marry his partner of 21 years, told AFP at the gates of Congress.

"This opens the doors and breaks down all those prejudices," he said.

- Abortion still illegal -

The issue deeply divides the two candidates headed for a presidential run-off on December 19.

Gabriel Boric, 35, who represents a leftist alliance that includes the Communist Party, supported the bill and voted "yes" in his capacity as lawmaker.

But 55-year-old far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast, who won 28 percent of first-round votes compared to Boric's 26 percent, campaigned against it.

Kast, who also opposes elective abortion, has since softened his vocal opposition to same-sex marriage, as he seeks to attract voters from the center.

Last week, Chile's Congress shelved a bill to decriminalize abortion, pending an edit of the text, effectively putting it on ice for at least a year.

The marriage bill was delayed on the same day to iron out differences of legal interpretations of certain technicalities.

The necessary adjustments were made over the past week by an expert committee of senators and lower house deputies.

The law recognizes equal rights and obligations for all married couples regardless of their gender.

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Same-sex marriage now legal in 30 countries



On October 1, 1989, for the first time in the world, gay couples in Denmark tied the knot in legal civil unions, but would have to wait until 2012 to be allowed to marry in church 

(AFP/LISELOTTE SABROE)More

Tue, December 7, 2021, 12:57 PM·3 min read

With Chilean lawmakers approving a same-sex marriage bill Tuesday, we look at the situation across the globe.

While the right to marry has been legalised in 30 countries, homosexuality remains banned in many parts of the world.

Swiss celebrate after voters approved same-sex marriage in a referendum (AFP/Fabrice COFFRINI)

- Europe, gay marriage pioneers -

On October 1, 1989, for the first time in the world, several gay couples in Denmark tied the knot in civil unions, which while giving their relationships a legal standing fell short of full marriage.

It was the Netherlands that first allowed gay marriages, giving more rights in April 2001.

Since then 16 European countries have followed suit in accepting gay marriages: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and most recently Switzerland.

Other European countries allow only weaker civil partnerships for the LGBTQ community -- including Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia, which rejected gay marriages in a 2015 referendum.

The Czech government has backed draft legislation that would make the country the first post-communist member of the European Union to legalise same-sex marriage, but its fate is uncertain.

In Romania a referendum aimed at enshrining a ban on gay marriage in the constitution failed in 2018 because of a low turnout.

- Progress in the Americas -

Canada was the first American country to authorise same-sex marriage in 2005.

In 2015 the US Supreme Court legalised gay marriage nationwide at a time when it was banned in 14 out of 50 states.

However the United States' first gay marriage actually took place in 1971, when a Minnesota couple obtained a marriage licence thanks to an overlooked legal loophole. The marriage was officially recognised in March 2019, after a five-decade legal battle.

In Latin America six countries allow same-sex marriages: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Costa Rica, which rubber-stamped it last year.

Mexico's federal capital authorised gay marriages in 2009. Half of its 32 states have followed.

Chile legalised gay civil unions in 2015, and its congress on Tuesday passed a bill legalising full-blown same-sex marriage.

Cuba left changes that would have paved the way for legal same-sex marriage out of its new constitution adopted in 2019. In 2021, a draft of a new family code opened the door to same-sex marriage, but it will be put to a referendum.

While much of Asia is tolerant of homosexuality, Taiwan became in May 2019 the first in the region to allow gay marriage (AFP/Sam YEH)

- Taiwan, first in Asia -

While much of Asia is tolerant of homosexuality, in May 2019 Taiwan became the first in the region to allow gay marriage.

In Japan, a court in northern Sapporo ruled in 2021 that the country's failure to recognise same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, in a landmark first verdict on the issue.

Australia (2017) and New Zealand (2013) are the only places in the wider Asia-Pacific region to have passed gay marriage laws.

In the Middle East, where homosexuality is repressed, Israel leads the way in terms of gay rights, recognising same-sex marriages that are sealed elsewhere although not allowing such unions in the country itself.

Several countries in the conservative region still have the death penalty for homosexuality, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

- Africa: marriage in one country -

South Africa is the sole nation on the African continent to allow gay marriage, which it legalised in 2006.

Around 30 African countries ban homosexuality, with Mauritania, Somalia and Sudan having the death penalty for same-sex relations.

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By curating news feeds, people unknowingly group selves online, study finds

People inadvertently create online '"echo chambers" when they curate news feeds to include preferred sources, according to a new study. Photo by Pixelkult/Pixabay

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- People unknowingly group themselves with like-minded others online, fueling political polarization across the United States simply by curating their news feeds, a study published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.

In a model of online information spread, when people are less reactive to news, their online environment remains politically mixed, the data showed.

However, when users constantly react to and share articles of their preferred news sources, they are more likely to create a politically isolated network, the researchers said.

By effectively sorting themselves into these polarized networks, they essentially develop "epistemic bubbles," according to the researchers.

RELATED Liberals and conservatives get their news from different sources

"Our study shows that, even without social media algorithms, coverage from polarized news outlets is changing users' social connections and pushing them unknowingly into so-called political 'echo chambers,'" study co-author Christopher Tokita said in a press release.

In these echo chambers, "they are surrounded by others who share their same political identity and beliefs," said Tokita, a data scientist at cybersecurity startup Phylum.

Once users are in these bubbles, they actually miss more news articles, including those from their preferred media outlets, according to Tokita.

RELATED Study: Political polarization often exaggerated, not as strong as people think

Users avoid what they deem as "unimportant" news at the expense of not seeing subjectively important news, Tokita said.

"Whether a user chooses to react to or ignore certain news posts can help determine if their social network will become ideologically homogenous or remain more diverse," he said.

The research adds to existing knowledge of "information cascades," or the process of individuals observing and mimicking the actions of others so that a wide online shift occurs.

This phenomenon is not unlike the collective behavior seen in schools of fish or insect swarms, the researchers said.

Political liberals and conservatives in the United States obtain their news from different sources, earlier research indicates.

Although political polarization has been a problem nationally in recent decades, some studies suggest it may be exaggerated.

For this study, the team built a theoretical model and tested its predictions with data from real social networks on Twitter, examining 1,000 followers of each of four news outlets: CBS News, USA Today, Vox and the Washington Examiner.

To track hints of political ideology and shifting social networks, the researchers used the complete follower network of users to record who followed and unfollowed each other over a six-week period during the summer of 2020, they said.

The follower demographic of CBS News and USA Today was more ideologically diverse than those Vox and the Washington Examiner, which, according to the researchers, tend to provide more politically slanted news coverage, the data showed.

The followers of Vox and the Washington Examiner tended to lose political and ideological diversity among their own online connections faster than those who followed CBS News and USA Today, the researchers said.

In addition, depending on the source, the sharing of viral news stories on social media can lead people to conclude that some of the "friends" they follow are misrepresenting the news as reported by their own preferred outlets, according to the researchers.

When people "unfollow" connections they deem untrustworthy, they effectively curate their online social spheres and unintentionally sort themselves into polarized networks, the researchers said.

Conversely, people who consume and share fake news might be isolating themselves inadvertently from everyone else who follows mainstream sources, they said.

Although online interactions are not solely responsible for the divisive shift occurring in U.S. politics, they have substantially influenced human behavior and relationships, according to the researchers.

Blatant knowledge of political ideology or alignment is not necessary for social networks to become politically segregated for users, they said.

"It's not hard to find evidence of polarized discourse on social media, but we ... show that polarization of online social networks emerges naturally as people curate their feeds," co-author Andy Guess said in a press release.

"Counterintuitively, this can occur even without knowing other users' partisan identities, said Guess, assistant professor of politics and public affairs at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs.

TRUE GRIFT

Rep. Devin Nunes to resign, take role as CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., announced Monday that he will resign from Congress and take a role as CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group, founded by former President Donald Trump. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Monday he will depart the U.S. House of Representatives early next year to become CEO of a new company founded by former President Donald Trump.

Nunes, who has served in the House since 2003 and is ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as well as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement he would leave office by Dec. 31 to head Trump Media & Technology Group, or TMTG, in January 2022.

"I'm writing to let you know I've decided to pursue this opportunity and therefore will be leaving the House of Representatives at the end of 2021," Nunes said in an emailed statement to constituents. "I will deeply miss being your congressman. It's been the honor of a lifetime to represent you and I thank you for the trust you put in me through all these years."

In a separate statement shared by TMTG, Nunes said he was "humbled and honored" that Trump asked him to take on the executive role.

"The time has come to reopen the Internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship," he said. "The United States has made the dream of the Internet a reality and it will be an American company that restores the dream."

In October, Trump announced the launch of TMTG, a new publicly traded media company.

The company plans to launch a social media network called TRUTH Social in the first quarter of next year followed by a subscription-based video-on-demand service that will feature "'non-woke' entertainment programming, news, podcasts and more."

In a statement Monday, Trump described Nunes as "a fighter and a leader," adding he will make an "excellent" CEO of the company.

"Devin understands that we must stop the liberal media and Big Tech from destroying freedoms that make America great. America is ready for TRUTH Social and the end to censorship and political discrimination," said Trump.

Data proved what Pittsburgh's Black leaders knew: Racial disparities compound COVID-19 risk

By Christine Spolar, Kaiser Health News

Tiffany Gary-Webb, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the University of Pittsburgh, oversees Black Equity Coalition’s data team.

Photo by Martha Rial/Kaiser Health News

LONG READ

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Black researchers, medical professionals and allies knew that people of color, even before COVID-19, experienced bias in public health policy.

As the deadly virus emerged, data analysts from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh, foundation directors, epidemiologists and others pooled their talents to configure databases from unwieldy state data to chart COVID-19 cases.

Their work documented yet another life-threatening disparity between White and Black Pittsburgh: People of color were at higher risk of catching the deadly virus and at higher risk of severe disease and death from that infection.

More than 100 weeks after advocates began pinging and ringing one another to warn of the virus' spread, these volunteers are the backbone of the Black Equity Coalition, a grass-roots collaboration that scrapes government data and shares community health intel.

About a dozen members of its data team of 60 meet twice weekly to study hospitalization rates and employment statistics. Social media advisers turned health equity into a buzzy online effort, with videos and weekly Facebook town halls, to encourage vaccinations. Local ministries are consulted, and volunteers take surveys at pop-up clinics, sponsored by other groups, at barbershops and hair salons. Elected lawmakers seek its counsel.

"We came together because we were concerned about saving lives," said Tiffany Gary-Webb, associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the University of Pittsburgh, who oversees the data effort. "It evolved, with us realizing we can do more than address COVID."

COVID-19 ravaged communities across the United States -- more than 787,000 Americans have died, including Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state and a decorated Army general -- and laid bare how marginalized populations lose out in the scrum for public health dollars and specific populations were left vulnerable.

Months before the pandemic began, the Rev. Ricky Burgess led the Pittsburgh City Council to declare racism a public health crisis.

"Institutional racism is for real," the councilman said in a recent interview. "You are talking about generational disproportional investment and generational disproportional treatment. And it impacts all that you see."

The COVID-19 pandemic proved how structural inequities have been missed or ignored, Burgess said.

"I've lost friends, family and a lot of church members. My son had COVID. For me, it's personal," he said. "I knew immediately it would have a disproportionate effect."

In 2020, COVID-19 reduced overall U.S. life expectancy by 1.5 years, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Black and Hispanic people fared the worst, losing more than three years in life expectancy. White people saw a 1.2-year drop.

Using county data, the Black Equity researchers found a sobering racial gap in the Pittsburgh area: Black residents of Allegheny County saw disproportionate hospitalization rates -- and were more likely to land in the ICU or on a ventilator -- in the pandemic. Weekly hospitalization rates were higher during surges of infection in April, July and December 2020 and again in March and October 2021. Deaths, too, were disproportionate but fluctuated after December 2020.

For much of the pandemic, death rates were higher for African Americans than for other racial groups, the coalition said.

'It's all a shade of bad'

Kellie Ware has long considered health inequity a deadly problem. She graduated from Pittsburgh public schools, left for law school in Boston, and months before COVID-19 began its global assault, she was working in her hometown mayor's office as an equity and diversity policy analyst.

Ware was at her desk in late 2019 when her phone started ringing. A damning report, compiled by university sociologists and the city's gender commission, had yet again detailed glaring disparities.

The blandly titled report, "Pittsburgh's Inequality Across Gender and Race," jolted emotions in the city of 303,000 people -- and underscored how health disparities track with income.

Among the findings: Black people in Pittsburgh earned far less than their White neighbors and suffered far worse from disease. For every dollar White men earned, the report found, Black women earned 54 cents, making them five times as likely to live in poverty as White men.

With notably higher cardiovascular disease and cancer rates, Black residents' life expectancy was about eight years less than White Pittsburghers'.

The report sparked a furor, which Ware met with perspective shaped over years away from the former steel town. "The report was factual," Ware said, "but I know this: There's not a ton of places where it's great to be a Black woman. Those earnings? It's 54 cents to a dollar for women in Pittsburgh. It's 68 cents nationally. It's all a shade of bad."

The first signs of the pandemic supercharged Ware and others. As COVID-19 devastated New York in March 2020, Karen Abrams, a program officer at the Heinz Endowments, a foundation in Pittsburgh that spends $70 million a year on community programs, began connecting the dots in texts and calls with nonprofits, business owners and university researchers.

COVID-19 spread quickly in dense multigenerational households and in Black neighborhoods in Chicago, Washington, New Orleans and Detroit. Abrams was among the advocates in Pennsylvania who watched county and state health systems race to prepare and who feared that Black residents would be underserved.

In Philadelphia, early on in the pandemic, volunteer doctors in mobile units began distributing protective equipment and COVID-19 tests in Black neighborhoods. In Pittsburgh, Abrams asked tech-minded allies to document the reality of COVID-19 infection in Pittsburgh. "We intuitively knew what was happening," she said. "But without that data, we couldn't target our attention and know who needed the help most."

Within days, volunteers were on daylong rounds of video calls and appealing to county and state bureaucrats for more race-based statistics to bolster their research.

Fred Brown, president of the nonprofit Forbes Funds, and Mark Lewis, who heads the nonprofit Poise Foundation, were stalwarts of a "huddle," a core of longtime advocates who eventually founded the coalition.

Brown emphasized pulling labor statistics to show that the essential workers keeping the city running -- among them nursing homes aides and home care staff -- were overwhelmingly Black or Latino.

Mapping COVID-19 testing centers and analyzing data proved sobering, he said. It turned out that the people most likely to be tested lived in Pittsburgh's predominately White neighborhoods. Largely employed in tech, academia and finance, they could easily adapt to lockdowns. They had round-the-clock Internet at home and could afford food deliveries to limit the chance of infection. Later, they could access vaccines quicker.'

"The communities that had the most tests were the affluent ones," Brown said. And those with the fewest "were the most resilient, the people who had to go out there and work."

Lewis, a certified public accountant who spent years as a corporate auditor, focused on standards. County and state health professionals worked mightily to control the spread of COVID-19 but didn't always gather data to ensure fairness in distribution, he said. "We realized that, as testing was done, it was not being recorded by race," Lewis said. "Why? A lot of the issue was -- at the state and the local level -- there was no requirement to collect it."

Gary-Webb said researchers had a sense of where the inequities would be found because they knew the neighborhoods. They first layered in percentages of Black families in poverty, as well as data on the locations of federally qualified health centers to advise health authorities on where and when to increase testing.

University and nonprofit researchers found anomalies as they worked. For instance, race was noted on some testing data, with patients designated as Black, White or, inexplicably, unknown. The "unknowns" were a significant percentage. So researchers began layering additional census, labor and ZIP code data, to identify neighborhoods, even streets, at risk.

The ZIP code data took months to shake loose from state databases, largely because government software was slow in the fast-moving pandemic and government data was not updated regularly or formatted in ways that could be easily shared.

Their efforts paid off: The group was able to winnow down Allegheny County records that omit race to 12% of positive COVID-19 cases; 37% of statewide records are missing race details, the coalition reported.

Robert Gradeck, who manages the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center, a nonprofit data collaborative, said COVID-19 should play a lasting role in improving public health reporting. "We kept thinking: What can we learn from this?" Gradeck said. "It's not that you can't answer questions. But you can answer only part of them."

Among the top recommendations to health authorities: Adopt software practices to ensure that race and other demographic data must be entered into electronic records. And then refine how to share data among counties, states, research institutions and the public.

The coalition attracted support in monthly calls with state Health Secretary Rachel Levine, recently sworn in as a four-star admiral in charge of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which responds to health crises on behalf of the federal government.

"I thought what they did was critically important," Levine said, noting that officials recognized the coalition's research as revelatory. With "a diverse group of professionals, they were able to use and collect data in a very effective way."

Their early research found the COVID-19 rate among Black people in Allegheny County, which encompasses Pittsburgh, was three times the rate of White people. Hospitalizations among Black people have been as high as seven times the rate of White people, according to "Missing Our Shot," the coalition's 2021 report.

Vaccine clinic campaign stop

Ed Gainey, a state legislator from Pittsburgh, was among the first politicians to say African Americans in his hometown were missing out on COVID-19 protections. Last month, Gainey was elected the city's first Black mayor, after winning a primary, within months of the murder of George Floyd, that pointed to inequities in healthcare and policing.

A Democrat who worked for two Pittsburgh mayors, Gainey admits he and other Black elected officials were somewhat ill-equipped in the first weeks of the pandemic.

"I fought hard to get the vaccine into the community last year, but I really didn't know the language -- the health language -- to be able to get it," Gainey said during an interview at a pop-up vaccine clinic in the city.

Vaccinations have risen because of community efforts, he said, but children are still a source of worry. Gainey, who grew up in a low-income housing complex, said he understands when some youngsters shrug when asked about COVID-19 risks. "But I will tell you I know this: If you can make a kid believe in Santa Claus, you can make them believe in the vaccine. And you know, I understand some of the young kids' reluctance. I didn't grow up going to the doctor regularly either," he said. "I came from the same kind of environment."

As the 2019 report made clear, many of the benefits of Pittsburgh's tech-based economy -- a vaunted "ed-and-meds" renewal against the industrial decline of the 1980s -- still was largely bypassing African Americans.

The first year of COVID-19 was an iterative process of trying to stay ahead of the virus. Gary-Webb, who earned a doctorate from Johns Hopkins' public health school, said it was also a time for Black residents to be heard about what they knew and saw in their neighborhoods.

The coalition, sustained by thousands of volunteer hours, attracted some funding earlier this year, notably for outreach and to pay for running datasets. Last month, the Poise Foundation was approved for a three-year, $6.99 million grant, federal money to be administered by the state health department to support an array of health partnerships in the region and, notably, to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake in ZIP code areas the Black Equity Coalition identified as vulnerable. Among its goals: demographic messaging, data analysis on COVID-19 testing and education outreach in dozens of counties.

Gary-Webb counts herself among a group of "boomerang" Pittsburghers who have lived other places -- in her case, Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia -- and COVID-19 has helped them recalibrate how Black residents can participate in public health.

As she put it: "The health planners were saying, 'Help us get out the message.' We said, 'No, we are not just getting out the message. We want to be talking about equity at the same time.'"

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

MEDICARE FOR ALL

Death rates declined in states that expanded Medicaid in 2014, study shows

By HealthDay News

States that expanded Medicare in 2014 under programs of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, have seen declines in their death rates, according to a new study. Photo by TBIT/Pixabay

In a sign that the expansion of Medicaid has really worked, new research finds that death rates have declined in states that expanded the public health insurance program.

Medicaid expansion began in 2014 as part of the Affordable Care Act -- also known as "Obamacare" -- and has provided health coverage for an additional 12 million Americans. Expansion is optional, and nearly one-quarter of states have not yet expanded access to Medicaid.

In this study, researchers at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine assessed the impact of Medicaid expansion by analyzing 2014 to 2018 data from 32 expansion states and 17 non-expansion states.

Medicaid expansion was associated with nearly 12 fewer deaths per 100,000 U.S. adults annually, and expansion may lead to an overall 3.8% decline in adult deaths each year, according to the study published this month in The Lancet Public Health journal.

"We found that Medicaid expansion exerts an influence on mortality rates - and the magnitude of benefit is correlated with the magnitude of expansion," said lead researcher Dr. Brian Lee. He is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

Medicaid expansion-related declines in deaths varied by state and by disease.

"The reduction in all-cause mortality was most associated with the number of women and non-Hispanic Black residents in each state. States that have chosen not to expand [Medicaid] have higher proportions of poor and Black residents, so they may have the most to gain from adopting Medicaid expansion," Lee said in a university news release.

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"We showed that Medicaid expansion led to fewer cardiovascular and respiratory deaths, which makes sense: More access to specialty care and prescription drugs likely means fewer deaths related to chronic diseases," Lee explained. "At the same time, the data reveal that expanding Medicaid did not impact cancer-, infection- or opioid-related deaths, which may not be as influenced by preventative care."

The findings could help guide health-related policy decisions, the researchers suggested.

"Continued Medicaid expansion may be a tool for policymakers to address ongoing wealth- and race-disparities, providing a ladder to improved health outcomes and social mobility for these underserved populations," Lee said.

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More information

Find out more about Medicaid expansion at HealthCare.gov.

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